2024-04-30 16:06:38
Company executives signed a protocol of intent with the Government of Rio Grande do Sul and environmental authorizations were processed to develop the necessary technical studies and evaluations.
CMPC and the State of Rio Grande do Sul agreed to a protocol of intentions to advance the evaluation of a comprehensive project, called Natureza, which brings together a new pulp millin addition to road and port infrastructure, sustainable associative forestry, conservation and cultural promotion.
The protocol of intentions includes, among other matters, road and port works necessary for the operation of the project, which would be located 15 kilometers from the city of Barra do Ribeiro.
“Our State of Rio Grande do Sul offers and gives certainty and security so that investments as relevant as these can be developed,” said the Governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite.
He added: “we made changes to our Environmental code so that investments can be adequately developed y without neglecting our environment (…) In addition, we expand the areas in which forestry can be carried out and grow in the state.”
The protocol is part of the development strategies of the Brazilian states to stimulate and promote investments such as Natureza, as it is a large-scale project for Rio Grande do Sul and that expands and diversifies its productive matrix.
Natureza is the industrial project and the largest investment in Rio Grande do Sul history and includes relevant investments in Barra do Ribeiro and the ports of Pelotas and Rio Grande.
At the same time, CMPC is processing permit requests for various monitors at the Henrique Luis Roessler State Environmental Protection Foundation (FEPAM), technical body of the Rio Grande do Sul State Environmental Protection System.
Thus, CMPC teams will be able to develop the necessary technical studies and environmental evaluations for the definitive preparation of the industrial project that would be presented to the decision of the CMPC Board of Directors in mid-2026.
If approved, the works would be carried out in a period of no more than three years.
According to Luis Felipe Gazitúa, President of Empresas CMPC, “we are starting an evaluation process for a large project that is part of the internationalization strategy that CMPC began more than three decades ago and that today has an industrial presence in nine countries in America.”
The project Nature
The comprehensive conception of the Natureza project brings together industrialization, road and port infrastructure, sustainable associative forestry, conservation and cultural promotion.
It involves the construction of a factory to produce up to 2.5 million tons per year of bleached short fiber kraft pulp (BHKP), with the possibility of subsequent expansion, under the highest global standards of environmental protection, efficiency and quality.
The plant is planned to be built 15 kilometers from the urban center of Barra do Ribeiro, a city that in turn is located 61 kilometers from Porto Alegre, the state capital, and 34 kilometers from the current CMPC pulp mill in Guaíba.
Natureza will enhance the capacity of the State’s waterway, using barges to transport wood and especially the cellulose produced, in addition to expand the current capacity and operations of the ports of Pelotas and Rio Grande.
In the field of conservation, Natureza seeks to protect and enhance the private natural heritage reserve (RPPN) of Barba Negrathrough the creation of the Barba Negra Ecological Park, which will become a reference for preservation, biodiversity, environmental studies and general knowledge of people, through a duly protected and sustainable circuit that will allow you to tour and learn about part of the native flora and fauna. of greatest relevance to the State.
If the project is completedwould imply an investment of US$ 4 billion for the new industrial unitUS$ 420 million in various road infrastructure works and US$ 150 million for the development of a new port terminal in Rio Grande, as well as an expansion in the Port of Pelotas.
This contemplates, in its construction phase, more than 12 thousand jobsprimarily local.